Using a trademarked American name?

Ants Murray

Hi All,

Spotted an idea in the states that I think may work very well over here but I'm slightly concerned about trademark issues ..... The company name is not registered here yet and the website domain.ie is also available and as far as I can see it's tradesmark is not registered here or in the UK. My problem is I want to use exactly the same name for the website at least and the business concept will be identical .... am I on shaky ground here? Has anybody any experience in this ares.

Thanks in advance.

iMax

I don't think you're even on shaky ground, it's no ground at all. Firstly, they;'d have you shut down faster than you could blink & secondly, do you want to be that guy who blatantly ripped off someone else's idea & tried to pass it off as (i) theirs & (ii) part of the corporation.

Whatever about copying & maybe somehow improving the idea, at last pick your own name for it. or enquire about franchise rights.

There was a shop in the GPO arcade for years called GAP selling Gap branded clothing & I was never sure how they got away with it, but eventually they were taken to the cleaners.

Acoshla

If they have a European trademark on the name and/or sell the same things as you there's no chance of you getting it, well actually no, you can get it, but you'll have a fight on your hands to keep it if they find out. I bought a domain name and registered a business name that it appeared I was entitled to use, there was a company in the US with the same name (didn't know this when I picked it originally but didn't think it mattered when I found out, I am a teeny tiny business) but doing something slightly different, but there are many others around using the same name or variations of it. What I didn't know was that they had a European trademark on the name (as do others with different variations but they were the only ones that go after people) and they started legal action against me. The out I had was that the .ie domain name should not have been available to buy so the fault lay with the hosting site, not me. But yeah, don't do it unless you *really* want that name!

Ants Murray

Cheers for the responses although they are not what I wanted to hear .... basically I wouldn't be selling any product and the service had been around for a while but it's just done a bit more efficiently online. I've checked the European and UK trademarks databases and there's no trace but I'm not sure if I still want to take the chance ... the domain name will be identical but it's by no means an original idea or concept. In fact I spot a flaw in their marketing and this is where I think the improvement will come in.

AstonMartin

They can have the site closed/siezed.
They might be able to sue you.
you will mislead your customers and they could sue you for their money back.